It has been a BUSY week! We held our conference Energize NEXT on Wednesday and yesterday we held the Energize AGM. I will cover those topics soon. On Wednesday our latest investment was announced in conjunction with the conference- and here is the note below.

Energize Capital is proud to participate in the $10M seed financing for GridStrong, the unified platform for electric grid compliance and operations. Congruent Ventures led the round, with participation from strategic utility investors, including ENGIE. Energize Principal Ana Hugener will join the board as an observer. This marks Energize’s first investment in the grid compliance space, an ecosystem we have tracked closely for years, and builds on our prior investments in grid software and cybersecurity.

The company is cofounded by Tom Scaramellino – a serial entrepreneur who has found a true problem with a big budget in the energy transition.

It was special as Josh Posamentier of Congruent was kind enough to fly to the conference and participate on a panel with Tom for Energize NEXT and we were able to announce the deal live on stage! This is our first, of hopefully many, investments with Congruent. We admire their history, presence and returns in the climate landscape.

More from the Energize blog post on “Why we invested” can be found here:

Enter GridStrong

Founded in February 2025, GridStrong is building the unified platform for electric grid operations, simulation, and compliance. In just months, the company has already secured more than half of the top 25 renewable asset owners as customers – including Invenergy, Orsted, AES, ENGIE, Southern Company, and NextEra—and manages over 30 GW of power on its platform.

The company combines deep energy, regulatory, and compliance expertise with modern software to replace fragmented systems and manual processes. By connecting plant data directly into intelligent workflows, GridStrong enables asset owners to automate compliance testing and reporting, reduce dependence on expensive consultants, and gain real-time visibility into the compliance status of entire portfolios. In turn, the platform helps accelerate interconnection and ongoing certification—keeping assets online and revenue flowing—while also reducing the costly fees and penalties that come with noncompliance.

At Energize, we invest in digital solutions that accelerate renewable deployment and improve grid reliability. Compliance sits at the intersection of both. Without confidence in asset reliability, developers can’t bring projects online, and operators can’t keep them running. This investment results from Energize’s deep research into grid technology and compliance, building on our investments in grid software (Nira Energy), cybersecurity (Nozomi Networks), and more.

The Team

GridStrong’s founding team brings together a rare combination of entrepreneurial experience, regulatory expertise, and software talent. CEO Tom Scaramellino is a multi-time founder who previously scaled an energy software business acquired by C3.ai, where he went on to lead the company’s AI utility software division. Meanwhile, President and Chief Engineer Ryan Quint brings a deep energy and engineering background, including nine years at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), where he helped write many of the very standards GridStrong now automates.

Together, Tom and Ryan have created a company that marries technical credibility with entrepreneurial agility. Their deep relationships in the industry and firsthand experience with the compliance burden give them a unique perspective on the problem. It’s this blend of regulatory know-how and software vision that has allowed GridStrong to win the trust of blue-chip customers only months after its founding.

What’s Next

With this new capital, the company will continue to invest in product, including expanding platform AI capabilities, developing additional compliance modules across regulating bodies, and further building integrations across asset data systems.

At Energize, we’re excited to support the GridStrong team as they scale. By streamlining compliance and enabling a faster, more reliable grid, GridStrong is helping unlock the next wave of renewable deployment, bringing us closer to a cleaner, more resilient energy future.